Libyan fighters retake strategic towns from Gaddafi

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were retreating Saturday after opposition fighters recaptured the key eastern towns of Ajdabiya, Brega, Ras Lanuf, and Bin Jawad in their first major victories since Western-led air strikes began a week ago.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said Regime change is not part of the military mission in Libya because past experience has shown it is "very complicated."

"As we've seen in the past, regime change is a very complicated business, sometimes it takes a long time, sometimes it can happen very fast. But it was never part of the military mission (in Libya)," he told ABC television.

U.S. President Barack Obama meanwhile, under pressure to explain his strategy to Americans, said the international mission had saved countless innocents from a "bloodbath" threatened by Gaddafi.

Gaddafi's forces were "on the back foot ... because they no longer have air power and heavy weaponry available" after a week of bombing by coalition warplanes, he said.

Capturing Ajdabiyah, a gateway from western Libya to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and the oil town of Tobruk, was a big morale boost for the rebels a week after coalition air strikes began to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone.

Ajdabiya, straddling the key road to Benghazi, is the first town recaptured by the rebels since a coalition of Western forces launched U.N.-backed air strikes on March 19 to stop Gaddafi’s forces attacking civilians.

Opposition fighters said they had also seized control on Saturday of the oil port of Brega, 70 km (45 miles) west along the Mediterranean coast from Ajdabiyah. But there was no independent confirmation.

Brega, site of an oil export terminal and refinery, sprawls over a large area and overall control can be hard to determine.

"Brega is 100 percent in the hands of liberating forces," said Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a rebel spokesman in Benghazi.

Another spokesman, Ahmed Khalifa, said the opposition fighters had captured at least 13 Gaddafi fighters who were being treated as prisoners of war.

Gaddafi directing forces

In Tripoli, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late Saturday that coalition air strikes were killing soldiers and civilians along the 400-kilometer (250-mile) road between Ajdabiya and Sirte, in the east.

"Tonight the air strikes against our nation continue with full power," said spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.

He repeated calls for a ceasefire and an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Earlier, opposition spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani told reporters in Benghazi that Gaddafi’s forces at Ajdabiya had refused several offers to surrender before rebel fighters attacked.

Ibrahim told reporters that Gaddafi was directing his forces but appeared to suggest the leader might be moving around the country so as to keep his whereabouts a mystery.

"He is leading the battle. He is leading the nation forward from anywhere in the country," said Ibrahim.

"He has many offices, many places around Libya. I assure you he is leading the nation at this very moment and he is in continuous communication with everyone around the country."

Misrata in need of help

In Libya's west, where the capital Tripoli and most of Gaddafi’s support is located, opposition fighters said the port city of Misrata was in dire need of help from coalition jets and aid groups because of attacks by Gaddafi forces.

French fighters destroyed at least five warplanes and two helicopters from pro-Gaddafi forces in the Zintan and Misrata regions on Saturday, said a statement on the French armed forces website.

British warplanes destroyed five Libyan armored vehicles in air strikes on Ajdabiya and Misrata Friday, the defense ministry in London said.

The Pentagon said western-led strikes had continued apace Saturday with 160 missions flown, compared to 153 a day earlier.

Air strikes early Saturday had left a radar facility in flames in Tajura, on the outskirts of Tripoli, a witness told AFP. The suburb is home to several military bases.